MARKET REPORT Managed Service Providers
“The trick is the blend the best of the current value added reselling with what fits your business and
goals as far as managed services” Pulseway
The MSP Opportunity
In the cloud based era of
The ever-increasing number of cloud technologies that a company has to work with today is raising the awareness
and relevance of managed service providers (MSPs) to an all-time high. Comms Business looks at the model options
for channels and why resellers should evaluate embracing those models
Anything-as-a-Service,
businesses need to think of
suppliers as strategic partners,
and on-board those with
capabilities to deliver end to end
support.
A managed services provider
(MSP) in our sector is an ICT
services provider that manages and
assumes responsibility for providing
a de ned set of services to its clients
either proactively or as the MSP
(not the client) determines that
services are needed.
ese are not solutions
looking for a problem as it is a
well-established fact that small- to
medium-sized businesses (SMBs)
have an ongoing challenge
managing their computing and
communications needs; they need
to reduce their ICT overhead
while improving reliability.
Organisations today have
a very wide array of ICT
applications ranging from on
premise hardware and software
as well as a growing number of
‘as a Service’ cloud and hosted
applications.
For most SMBs, it’s not coste
ective to maintain a full-time
ICT sta , and even if there is a
team on site they can’t address
every challenge thrown at them.
PRICING/CHARGING MODELS
You might think that pricing
of managed services is simply a
case of per user, per month, per
application or device and that is
certainly one model or option
available – but there’s much
more and pricing of services is
most certainly in the top three
user considerations, along with
sales and service delivery, that
determine who wins the business.
Generally speaking, the
principal managed services
pricing models at an MSP’s
disposal include monitoring
only, per device, per user, tiered
pricing, all you can eat and a la
carte, though some suppliers use
di erent terminology.
Di erent models will work for
di erent suppliers and of course,
for di erent customers.
MONITORING ONLY:
Provided to
organisations of
any size, the
monitoringonly
pricing
model
provides,
say, network
monitoring
and alerting
services by the MSP. For larger
organisations. this means
alerting the customer’s inhouse
IT sta , or both. Services
are usually provided on a at fee
per month which allow the MSP
to charge for additional services
– some or all of which could be
wrapped up in the at fee.
PER DEVICE:
is is the most popular and
simple MSP pricing model. Here
an MSP has a menu, or list, of
services, each of which has its own
monthly per device fee, £40.00
per desktop, £10.00 per phone etc.
Two quick observations here.
Firstly, this model is very simple
for quotations, easy to illustrate
for users and again simple to work
out costs for changes in user/
device numbers. is is why it is
so popular.
Secondly, and this is a
downside of the model, it is also
easy for users to compare pricing
between competing suppliers
and therefore susceptible to the
dreaded ‘race to the bottom’ on
pricing.
TIERED PRICING:
ink Gold, Silver and Bronze
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